Bidirectional exchange between EA 6.1 and 6.5

[mikailb]

Hello,

I'm participating in an development project with members from all over Europe. We've standardized on EA 6.x as our UML tool. Now I need to know whether is it possible to exchange models (in *eap and .xml format) between EA 6.1 and EA 6.5 without any loss of information, since at present we have no control over the versions that different members are using. Particularly, I would require this in two directions (6.1 model read and modified by EA 6.5, as well as 6.5 model read and modified by 6.1).

Normally I would assume that it would be possible to exchange models between any update (dot releases) within one particular version (say EA 6). However, the change from UML 2.0 (and XMI 1.1) to UML 2.1 (and XMI 2.1) makes me wonder whether this is true. And since I cannot install two version of EA on the same machine simulteneously, I've not be able to test this.

I'm asking this question because I cannot find any reference to these items on the EA site (or I haven't looked very thoroughly).

Kind regards,

Mick Baggen

[Paolo F Cantoni]

We've done some de facto testing between 6.1 (792), 6.5 (797) and 6.5 (798).

We occasionally found problems moving packages under XML 1.1.  .EAP seemed OK.

My recommendation is to try and get one machine per site up to the common latest version and use XML 2.1 - which we found was better.

Use these machines as the transfer "hubs".

HTH,
Paolo

[mikailb]

Hello Paolo,

Thanks for your reply, although I'm not sure whether I understood you correctly. Are you saying that it is possible to create EAP files in EA 6.5, and open and modify them in EA 6.1 without loss of data ? And vice versa, that you can create EAP files in 6.1, and open and modify them with EA 6.5, again without loss of data ?

I would be very grateful if you could confirm (or deny) these statements !

Of course, I understand that it would be better that every developer involved uses the most recent version of EA, but I'm not sure whether we can enforce that situation...

Regards,

Mick

[Paolo F Cantoni]

Hello Paolo,

Thanks for your reply, although I'm not sure whether I understood you correctly. Are you saying that it is possible to create EAP files in EA 6.5, and open and modify them in EA 6.1 without loss of data ? And vice versa, that you can create EAP files in 6.1, and open and modify them with EA 6.5, again without loss of data ?

I would be very grateful if you could confirm (or deny) these statements !

Of course, I understand that it would be better that every developer involved uses the most recent version of EA, but I'm not sure whether we can enforce that situation...

Regards,

Mick

Mick,

We did our transfers (between EA) using XML.  I think the Sparxians need to provide the advice about the .EAP files.  We were only in this situation for a number of days.

I wouldn't really risk trying to use the same repository with two different versions of EA.  The costs to ensure the same version pale into insignificance compared to the costs of trying to recover a failure - not that I'm expecting any.  Either standardise on 6.1 or 6.5 (I'd recommend the latter)

HTH,
Paolo